They have been working on this for a while. It will be interesting to see whether it leads into anything. It would be also interesting to see if serious over-blocking (as well as under-blocking) will be witnessed with the certified products…

UK – Standard adopted for filtering tools: “(BSI)
The Kitemark for Child Safety Online has been launched with the Home Office and Ofcom to provide consumers – especially parents – reassurance that their children will not be subjected to undesirable web content. Manufacturers of filtering, monitoring and blocking applications can get their products certified against the Kitemark standard and those that pass the tests will be able to display the Kitemark symbol on their products. Parents will be able to see clearly and quickly which products will give their children the most effective protection whilst online. The Kitemark for Child Safety Online has been developed through a collaboration between BSI (the UK’s National Standards Body), the Home Office, Ofcom and representatives from ISPs and application developers.”

(Via QuickLinks Update.)